Bringing back elements of the 1980s sound has scored convenient success in the present landscape of synth-driven music. Just ask Paramore, Dreamcar, and LCD Soundsystem. Perhaps that is why Dave...
Is that a thumb piano playing the opening notes of this song? (“Hell-On”) I will be humming the “nothing quite so poison as a promise” break from “Hell-On” to myself until I can’t stand...
In December of 2017, I had an opportunity to review Welcome Home, a collection of short stories centered on adoption edited by Eric Smith. The stories collected here represent such a wide spectrum of...
Alice Merton is the kind of artist who offers hope to countless others. After label after label failed to see any hit potential in her music, she and her manager started their own label in late 2016...
Less than twelve months ago, the fortunes of Zac Farro, the multi-instrumentalist mastermind behind HalfNoise, became fruitful and multiplied. First, his injection of pop sensibilities, distilled...
Note: This review contains spoilers for the episode “Journey Into Night,” as well as the first season of Westworld. The first season of HBO’s futuristic, violent Westworld was a success with...
“You need to know why you're doing it” was the insight Jack White offered in a recent interview with KCRW when asked about his philosophy and attitude toward recording. After hearing his third...
For the past week and a half or so, I have been dealing with a shoulder/back injury that has cut my productivity down to the nub. I don’t know how I injured myself, so I suspect that this muscle...
Fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock glides through his fairy tale life like a pair of his cloth paper scissors; deceptively serene yet sharp and quick to cut to the bone should his wit or peculiar...
A confession, to start off my first music review of the year: I was resistant to folk music—even just listening to it, as a means of expanding my musical horizons, for a long time. I used to be...